FREE ESSAY ON PLATO

PLATO

The Allegory of the Cave is a dialogue on nature, by the very influential Greek
philosopher Plato. His life was headed toward politics until his mentor Socrates was
executed. Plato then abandoned politics and turned to writing and teaching philosophy. I
believe his philosophies play a more significant and meaningful role than materialism in
our modern society. He believes that the world revealed by our senses is not the real
world but only an illusion of true reality.
The cave represents the system or government, in this cave lives prisoner chained like
animal to the wall with no mobility and deprived of light. This allegory shows why the
truth is so hard to accept and why once the prisoners are shown the truth, they refuse to
accept it and revert back to their old ways." The glare will distress him, and he will be
unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen shadows; and then
someone tells them what they had seen before was an illusion, they will not
understand."(278) 
Plato believed that the prisoners may never be able to leave the darkness, the only truth
they have ever know, is the truth they can never escape. Even though Bacon believed in
induction, facts and specific evidence, he still agrees with Plato's ideas of human's
reality is distorted because of misinterpretation. "The human understanding is like a
false mirrior, which, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own
nature with it."(382) On the other hand Plato believed in deduction, a study of an
assumption and then a conclusion. 
I compare our society to Plato's allegory because we too are living in a shadow. That
shadow is created by the actions and beliefs of Americans today. However most people
either don't agree or can't understand this reasoning because each person has their own
limited knowledge and that becomes their only reality. 
Every day I see my country be run solely on the behalf money. This materialistic belief
over powers those of morals and values. Therefore, I belief the religious and spiritual,
people in our country get neglected, and their values get placed on a back burner. I do
not agree or approve of the way America is ran. I believe in the ideas and experiences of
enlightenment of Plato's philosophy.
This does not motivates me to feel privileged to be an American, and ashamed to live in
our cold materialistic society.
WORKS CITED
Plato "The Allegory of the Cave". Lee A. Jacobus. Benjamin Jowett. Boston. Bedford Books.
1998 (278)
Bacon, Francis "The Four Idols". Lee A. Jacobus. Novum Organum(From) Boston. Bedford
Books. 1998 (382)